DJGold

CJ Greiner

We all started off small with our first DJ Gig... but now we're legitimate business people running legitimate DJ BUSINESSES.

How is everyone managing their money/taxes?

I know that DJIntelligence/DJWebmin and GigBuilder will allow you to print reports and track payments for each gig, but as far as I know, they don't provide real accounting for all aspects of a legitimate business: Advertising Expenses, Utilities, mileage, rent/mortgage, taxes, fees, etc.

So how does everyone really manage their finances?

QuickBooks? (Some other program?)

And... how are you setting up the accounts? Billing? Invoice numbering systems?

Thanks,

Dj Sean · Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 3:19 pm Post subject:

I'm glad you brought this up CJ. As this is the part most people fail at and it ends up hurting or even ruining their business.

Not only doing your taxes but keeping track of your assests, credit, debt, expenses, and so on and so forth.

I just got quickbooks for Mac and love it. The best way to describe how important it is to my business is, I honestly don't know how I lived without it before.

It takes some time to setup and learn your way around with Quickbooks or Quicken (which I have not had a chance use), but once you do, the depth to which it gives you vital information is staggering.

One of the features I like so much is the to do reminders. They remind me to pay upcoming bills or call clients back, not a feature you might expect from a tax program, and what you find out is Quickbooks is really like a secratary, accountant, and tax preparer all wrapped up in one program.

Definitly worth looking at for those DJ's who are still using the ancient paper method.

davidjones@a2zmobilemusic

one program that does alot of what you are speaking of is djcalendar v4.0. you can do billing and set up reminders. you also can make or create all types of reports. the customer service sucks. i have the trail program and had a few questions which i emailed before taking the leap. that was 4 months ago.....no response. :cry:

CJ Greiner · Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:44 pm Post subject:

There are actually quite a few different DJ business management programs, and they all seem to take care of the scheduling side of the business pretty well.

I can't find a one of them that actually takes care of the financial side of it -- not completely.

QuickBooks actually does have an integration module freely available for developers... but I don't think any of the DJ Programs has taken the time to provide financial import/export capabilities yet.

Dj Sean · Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 12:36 am Post subject:

Can u expand on what you mean CJ, by financial import/export capabilities?

JR · Joined: March 11th, 2004 Posts: 408 Location: Phoenix, AZ

My first year of tracking and compiling income/expenses was definitely confusing. However, I started using a ledger the second year (provided free from H&R Block); I just modified the headings as I needed them and updated the the intake/output entries as they occured. When I moved to Phoenix, Block didn't offer the free ledgers anymore. So Michele (being an accounting specialist, and quite familiar with MS-Excel) created a spreadsheet ledger using the titles I modified from my previous manual ledgers. She also included formulas so I could track monthly and year-to-date figures. It's nothing fancy, easy to modify, and really quite simple to use. I've attached a copy for your preview and use should it fit your needs. I'm going into my fourth year using it.

TheBartman47 · Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 11:02 am Post subject:

I still do the old fashion paper method.... though, I may give RJ's spread sheet thing a try. It would at least save me several hours worth of calculator time.

dokai · Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 12:46 pm Post subject:

Anybody else having trouble downloading JR's spreadsheet? I keep getting prompted for a user name and password, and it doesn't like the ones I use for DJ Gold.

JR · Joined: March 11th, 2004 Posts: 408 Location: Phoenix, AZ

I just tried to download it and asked to view instead of save. I was able to view the file, but when I went to save it I got the same results as dokai. I attempted my DJ Gold ID and password, but it just asked me for it again. However, when I canceled the screen, the save as... screen appeared and I was able to save it.

Your results may vary :?

I tried again; this time when asked, I chose "Save" instead of "View". the results were that it downloaded and saved successfully.

CJ Greiner · Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 6:07 pm Post subject:

Hmmm.... I was able to download it, as well as open it in my browser -- are you guys still having trouble with it?

(I think it also requires that you have Microsoft Excel installed on your computer to open the file.)

Thanks for sharing the file with us, JR. I'll definitely take a look at it to make sure I'm including all of the accounts and deductions I need.

DJ Sean wrote: Can u expand on what you mean CJ, by financial import/export capabilities?

It's possible for 3rd Party software to interact with QuickBooks. The other DJ Management programs could automatically enter client payments into your QuickBooks file so that you wouldn't have to do it twice (Once in the DJ Management Program, and again in QuickBooks.)
There are other more complex ways that the programs could interact -- I haven't read about all of the capabilities available in the QuickBooks integration module.

dokai · Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 7:34 pm Post subject:

CJ - I think your status as owner probably gives you privileges the rest of us don't have.

I get prompted for a user name and password twice: first, when I try to download the file, I can cancel past that and get the spreadsheet open. However, once open, when I try to "save as", it prompts me again for a username and password, and there doesn't seem to be any way around that one.

TheBartman47 · Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:37 pm Post subject:

I had no problems downloading it from my office or from my home computer. I did regular click on the "download" icon (not right click) and the option to open, save, or cancel came up. I selected "save", then it prompted for which folder I want to save in, I put it in my "my documents" folder, and clicked "OK", and it saved right away.

CJ Greiner · Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 11:38 pm Post subject:

dokai wrote: CJ - I think your status as owner probably gives you privileges the rest of us don't have.

I get prompted for a user name and password twice: first, when I try to download the file, I can cancel past that and get the spreadsheet open. However, once open, when I try to "save as", it prompts me again for a username and password, and there doesn't seem to be any way around that one.

That was a good assumption, Dokai... so I logged in as a non-privileged user, and it worked fine. Then I logged out completely, and I was still able to download it to my computer as well as open the file in my browser. :?

What browser are you using?

dokai · Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 8:38 am Post subject:

CJ Greiner wrote: What browser are you using?

I'm using IE 6.0.2800.1106 with SP1, running on W2K Pro with SP4.

Just tried it again. The good news is that it's repeatable. :hahaha: It's probably just something wonky with my machine. I haven't rebuilt it almost a year, and we all know how those Micro$oft operating systems get if you don't rebuild them every once in a while.

JR · Joined: March 11th, 2004 Posts: 408 Location: Phoenix, AZ

CJ Greiner wrote: ...Thanks for sharing the file with us, JR. I'll definitely take a look at it to make sure I'm including all of the accounts and deductions I need.

You're welcome CJ. If you should realize any categories I may have missed please let me know.

dokai wrote: Just tried it again. The good news is that it's repeatable. :hahaha:

If anyone having problems with downloading the file is interested, I'll e-mail it or attach it to a message through DJ-Gold. Just let me know.

Dj Sean · Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 5:25 pm Post subject:

Quote: It's possible for 3rd Party software to interact with QuickBooks. The other DJ Management programs could automatically enter client payments into your QuickBooks file so that you wouldn't have to do it twice (Once in the DJ Management Program, and again in QuickBooks.)
There are other more complex ways that the programs could interact -- I haven't read about all of the capabilities available in the QuickBooks integration module.

That is a great feature, I could see why you would want it, CJ. If you find any new information out about this, let us know, and I will do the same.

davidjones@a2zmobilemusic

guys i found a wonderful program called www.djeventplanner.com .
i have been toying with it for a month or 2 and finally signed up. the event management and financial aspect of it is great. the developer is very attentive to suggestions for upgrades and even personaly called to welcome me. the other half of the program is like djintel but not yet ready to be compared. i just use the client/employee/financial trackers.
you can import and export data from all. try it, i was pleased.

davidjones@a2zmobilemusic · Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 8:32 pm Post subject:

CJ Greiner wrote: It's possible for 3rd Party software to interact with QuickBooks. The other DJ Management programs could automatically enter client payments into your QuickBooks file so that you wouldn't have to do it twice (Once in the DJ Management Program, and again in QuickBooks.)
There are other more complex ways that the programs could interact -- I haven't read about all of the capabilities available in the QuickBooks integration module.

sounds like a winner!